The state Parole Board deferred action Monday in the case of a Little River County man who has twice been convicted in the 1997 murder of a married couple and attempted murder of their then-infant child.
Timothy Lamont Howard, 46, was originally convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1999 for the murders of Brian and Shannon Day and also received a 30-year sentence in the attempted murder of the infant. In 2013, Howard's conviction was vacated and a new trial began in late April of this year.
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He was convicted in May of second-degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive 14-year prison terms as well as a consecutive 10-year sentence for the attempted murder of the child.
The inmate, who is in a Grady prison, becomes eligible for parole next February, according to the Arkansas Department of Correction's website. The Parole Board determines which of the state's inmates should be released on parole.
Howard had a parole hearing Oct. 8, nearly two years after a Little River County circuit judge ruled that prosecutors withheld key evidence in Howard's capital murder trial. The case was sent back to circuit court by the Arkansas Supreme Court.
Solomon Graves, Parole Board administrator, said Monday that the seven-member board needed more time to evaluate the record of Howard's retrial.
Graves did not elaborate on what information the board wanted to consider but said that the local prosecutor and trial judge involved in his retrial both opposed Howard's release.
Howard's attorney, Patrick Benca, did not return a phone call for comment Monday.
In December 1997, a Little River County sheriff's deputy discovered the body of Brian Day in the back of a rental truck in Ogden. Day had been shot in the head and beaten. Day's wife, Shannon, was found in the couple's home in Ashdown. She was bound and had a leather strap around her neck. In a closed bag in the bedroom, investigators found the couple's child with a cord wrapped around the neck.
The Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed Howard's convictions in 2002, but later agreed that information withheld by prosecutors during the first trial, including notes detailing damaged DNA samples linking him to the crime, warranted a rehearing in Little River Circuit Court.
Howard argued in both trials that he was not the one responsible for the deaths of the Days and suggested that the couple's drug dealing could have prompted an attack from several individuals.
Metro on 10/20/2015